This team is made up of agency directors who have significant roles administering agency activities (Kansas Department for Children and Families, Kansas State Department of Education, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund). In 2019, key agency staff with responsibility for early childhood initiatives formed the State Directors Team11 to collaboratively strengthen the Kansas early childhood system. Achieving this new vision will require early intervention, support, and resources that prioritize the needs of each individual child. The State Board identified kindergarten readiness as one of five key outcomes to measure progress.
Thousands of Kansans shared their perspectives to shape this vision, and they recognized the critical importance of early childhood in student success. In 2015, the Kansas State Board of Education announced a new vision statement for education in Kansas: 10 Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.
This built on the foundational child care policy of 1994.9 Lexie’s Law, named for a Kansas toddler who suffered a preventable fatal injury while in child care, strengthened Kansas child care licensing requirements in an effort to prevent future tragedies. In 2010, Kansas passed critically important child care legislation8 to protect Kansas children. ECCS works to improve outcomes for child and family well-being by building systems at the state and local levels that support children birth through five and their families, specifically emphasizing the importance of developmental screenings and subsequent referrals to appropriate services. Since 2003, Kansas has had an Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems7 (ECCS) initiative in place, managed by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The Children’s Cabinet is charged5 with developing and implementing a coordinated and comprehensive early childhood care and education system,6 aligning and facilitating interagency cooperation, and advising the governor and legislature regarding investments in early childhood programs and services. This landmark legislation dedicated Kansas’ annual payments from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement to the KEY Fund and the CIF and created the Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund (Children’s Cabinet). In 1999, Kansas lawmakers again demonstrated a strong commitment to our state’s future by enacting legislation to transform the original trust fund into the Kansas Endowment for Youth (KEY) Fund and the Children’s Initiatives Fund (CIF). We were the first state in the nation to establish a children’s trust fund in 1980.
Kansas has a long history of valuing early childhood as the foundation for a fulfilling life. Additionally, high-quality early learning opportunities have been shown to lessen the harmful effects of economic insecurity, toxic stress, and trauma for children whose basic needs are not met early in life. They tend to have better educational and health outcomes, higher graduation rates, and earn higher lifetime salaries. Children who experience high-quality early childhood care and education have shown positive effects that last a lifetime. Investing early in a child’s life pays dividends for decades. With more than 90% of a child’s brain architecture developed by age five, there is no time to lose our efforts to prepare young Kansans for success hinge on this critical early period of growth. When young children experience stressful conditions – like economic hardship, neglect, or abuse – these negative experiences can disrupt the progress of their developing brains, which can in turn lead to lifelong challenges. Early relationships, experiences, and environment all heavily influence this critical period of brain development. We know that children make more than a million neural connections each second from birth to age 3, and these neurons form a brain architecture that can shape a child’s entire life trajectory. Decades of scientific research underscore the importance of high-quality early childhood programs and experiences.
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